Im sooo lost S13 suspension issue

[bades]

: mods :

*st sway bars front and rear*nismo powerbrace* kyb struts eibach springs*skyline big brakes*trued on wheel balancer gramlights

Ok guys so recently i developed the dreaded s13 front end vibration at 55mph..... after 60mph it would go away and i thought nothing of it.... well recently it had gone away completely.... well over the weekend i finished my swap...again.... and drove her tpo work today... well it had a slight vibration at all speeds... found out that my driveshaft bolt had cracked the crushwasher and it fell off.... so i fixed that and i noticed that my passenger side tension rod bolts had cum loose and the rod was not attached to the lower control arm.... so i got sum new bolts and washers and replaced the old missing hardware.....

the shell had large bolts with washers on them holding the tension rod up about an inch above the control arm... y would sumone do this????

after replacing the bolts and washers the vehicle had an unreal shake from 55 up... bad enuf to almost rip the wheel from my hands....the car did not really pull to one side or the other.... and it did not effect handling.....

occasionally the vibration would go away but then cum back..... sumtimes when turning the vibration would go away....

what the hell is this???? my steering rod is tight wheels were balanced again today i check my alignment and i checked out the tsb on the steering spring.... any ideas guys???? it pisses me off bad.....

[sommmatt]

Check Tire Balance.

[bades]

well i balanced them again... checked runout of the rim... no bends or bad roadforce....

[Shift__BODOM]

Make sure every single suspension bolt up front is properly torqued down. I had a similar problem, happened to be a loose bolt. Might not be your prob but worth a shot.

[slipknot555_666_69]

dumb idea but jack up the front end and make sure the tie rods r ok and when was the last time u replaced the rotors they might be warped but doubt it would make it shake that bad

[kc240guy]

maybe they spaced the tension rods because the frame is bent and it was the only way the thing would drive decent.

[hilux30]

ok you said gramlights and thats fine, but what tire size/brand and condition? did you buy them used? any cupping on the tires? 55MPH vibrations is most likely a tire with an inner seperated layer that keeps shifting the balance, or a bent wheel but you said they are strait. Torque the suspesion bolts right, that makes a big difference as the suspension's dynamics must be tuned to the chassis right. How are the upper strut mounts?? if they are rubber and crap could cause constant wheel hop...

[bades]

tires are brand new aswell.... i did roadforce em at wrk and everything came out fine.... i am still using the stock rubber strut mount.... now im begining to think thats my issue...

ima replace those today....and see wats up... the odd thing is i can grab my passenger front wheel and kinda move it and watch the strut move wit it.....

[Bumnah]

Check ball jointsCheck wheel bearings, starting with the front wheels.Check bushings in the lower control arms, if your tension rods have rubber bushings still, check those too.

It was hard to understand everything you were saying, but it looks like you had some missing OEM hardware, and replaced it with other stuff.

All the nuts on the suspension are deformed thread nut, they are designed to take much more abuse than your standard hardware. It is a very good idea to only use OEM hardware. Standard hardware shouldn't just come loose immediately, but over time it's very likely they will.

Make sure you're torquing everything properly as well.

If you are reinstalling suspension pieces with the factory rubber still installed, all suspension pieces need to be torqued down with the suspension under load, you will get binding if you don't.

[slipknot555_666_69]

http://www.pdm-racing.com/prod....html

theirs two rubber bushings the ball joint and where it mounts to the frame check both of them
Modified by slipknot555_666_69 at 7:02 AM 11/5/2009

[hilux30]

tires are brand new aswell.... i did roadforce em at wrk and everything came out fine.... i am still using the stock rubber strut mount.... now im begining to think thats my issue...

ima replace those today....and see wats up... the odd thing is i can grab my passenger front wheel and kinda move it and watch the strut move wit it.....

what do mean it moves? like a clunky move? move side to side? I'm assuming the front end is off the ground and you grabed the tire looking strait at it with a side to motion, that"s how we test for tie rods, grap the top and bottom of tire and that is strut mount or bearing issue. maybe you should take it to a mechanic and get them to check the suspension for you.

[blacksrjdm]

Probably steering rack bushings, or tie rods, or ball joints. If you cant figure it out yourself why not take it to an alignment shop and have them find out for you what is loose.

Lift up the front end. With the steering wheel unlocked, shake the wheel top and bottom side to side, see what has play in it, replace. Front suspension parts are very easy to diagnose issues on...

[blacksrjdm]

http://www.pdm-racing.com/prod....html

theirs two rubber bushings the ball joint and where it mounts to the frame check both of them

Modified by slipknot555_666_69 at 7:02 AM 11/5/2009

Huh???

[masterdisaster]

OMG .. i feel your pain .. i'm going thru the same thing with my 180sx

i even swap wheels with known well balanced wheels that don't shake on the car.. it still had a vibration but less becuz they were stock 15inch and had more rubber on them..

i changed my front wheel bearings with SKF bearings and now 8000 km later the new ones are shot becuz of the vibration. i've changed tie rods , bushings, ball joints, tension-rods , steering rack bushings and it's still there.

when i first got the car it had some basic Tein coilovers.. replaced those with Cusco Comp-2 still had the problem.

i read ones on this forum about Nissan Altimas having a similar problem .. and it ended up being a ABS issue. ..my car doesn'T have ABS but still that made me suspect my brakes.. i lifted the car and stun the wheel by hand.. IT HAD RESISTANCE!! and then sometimes it didn't @ all .. WTF! .. removed the brakes and spun the bearing by hand,,no resistance! now something wrong with my caliper?brake line? master cyl? i donno i didn't have time to check.

went i take my car out of storage next springs.. i'll check the complete braking sys. again.. and if that doesn't do anything.. the only thing left to do is take down the complete front end.. inspect and remount everything with proper torque.

hope this helps.. hopefully u find the problem soon ..cuz i know it's a f***ing b**** to live with that damm vibration

[sean@z1]

I had the vibration recentally it was from a cheap Tie rod End that was out of grease and the other side was blown so i replaced them as well as did the whole Energy suspension bushings all the way around except the Sub Frame on the rear but it fixed the problem for the most part.

[Gabes13]

When I swapped my tie rods out for circuit sports, I made the mistake of under torquing one of the bottom bolts on the ends (the ones that connect to the knuckle. Vibrations everywhere from 30mph up.

It had maybe a couple of mm of play, but was enough to shake the crap out of my wheel.

Torqued to spec. done.

[slipknot555_666_69]

Huh???

if it has play up and down the its either the bearing, ball joint, or the bushing where its bolted to the frame